Sports on YouTube

The internet has revolutionized the life of the average sports fan over the last decade, from the growth of fantasy sports to real-time streaming video of every March Madness game.  At the same time, YouTube has become the go-to online source for procrastinators everywhere, providing the world with a nearly endless supply of pointless, yet undeniably entertaining, user-generated video clips.  The worlds of professional sports and YouTube rarely collide, however; the major media outlets control the rights to the vast majority of legitimate highlights and clips and immediately report Terms of Use violations to YouTube, causing many of the offending videos to be removed almost immediately.  The exceptions, however, are user-generated mash-ups or reenactments of famous moments in sports, which can be very impressive and even more entertaining.

Let's take Seattle Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch's now-famous game-clinching touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints from this past Saturday.  Just in case you were being held hostage in someone's basement over the weekend, here's a video clip, courtesy of YouTube.  Rather than the authentic version of the video you'd find on ESPN.com, YouTube often prominently features videos made by random people (read: weirdos) who, for some reason, videotape their television sets and post those videos online.  Observe:

Interested in something that gets you a little closer to the real action?  YouTube also has this home video clip shot by a fan in the upper deck, which in some ways is pretty awesome (I especially like the audio at the 1:08 mark and again towards the end).

Now, YouTube offers us a number of other, more original versions of this classic NFL moment, too.  When watching the Seahawks game, did you find yourself wondering what Lynch's run would look like on the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tecmo Bowl?  YouTube's got you covered:

Or, sticking with the Nintendo theme, perhaps you want to watch the Lynch video, but replace the audio with sound effects from the original Mario Bros. Well a quick YouTube search for "Marshawn Lynch touchdown Mario Bros." yields this little beauty, my personal favorite:

While I don't have the rest of the night to waste, I'm sure there are dozens more.  Feel free to post more of your favorite YouTube links in the comments section.  For my legitimate online sports news and highlights, I'll stick to ESPN.com or SI.com.  If I have a few minutes (or hours . . .) to kill and I'm looking for a sports-related laugh, though, YouTube is definitely the way to go.

The Fighter: A Review

While I've done a couple of sports-related book reviews on this blog, I've yet to write about any sports movies.  I don't go see a lot of films, especially not in the theater (I think the last one I saw was Megamind sometime shortly after Thanksgiving), but I'm really glad I went to see The Fighter last night.  The Fighter was much more than the typical formulaic recipe for a mediocre-yet-entertaining sports movie (Underdog + Training Montage + Unexpected Improvement = Title Shot; think Rocky Balboa, which I admittedly really liked).  In addition, the movie is a strong social commentary about the difficulties and complexities of "making it" as a professional boxer in the 1990s, highlighting conflicts between fighters, family, managers and trainers that marred the sport then and continue to affect it today.

I'm not here to talk about the technical aspects of the film (there are professional movie reviewers for that), but it's worth nothing that Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams were all, in my opinion, excellent in their roles.  Walhberg (Micky Ward) plays a convincing down-on-his-luck welterweight wavering between retirement and fighting to support his family, while Bale steals numerous scenes with his portrayal of Ward's brother, a former fighter and current Ward trainer who battles a crack addition and legal troubles throughout the film.  In addition to the solid acting, the fight scenes are realistic and intense, and much of the film is shot in a 1990s era "ESPN-esque style" that makes the movie extremely realistic.

Anyone can read about Ward's story; the movie is worth seeing because of the way it depicts the numerous conflicts between Ward and his brother, his girlfriend (Adams), his dysfunctional family, his management / promoters and even media outlets such as ESPN.  While big-time fighters such as Sugar Ray Leonard had conpetent management to handle scheduling, payment and media coverage, allowing them to focus solely on training full time, smaller-scale (yet still competitive) fighters such as Ward were (and probably still are) forced to rely on underprepared and sometimes-selfish family members and friends to handle issues outside of the ring.  While The Fighter is a boxing movie, it's the social and interpersonal aspects of the film that separate it from the pack and have many (including Sports Illustrated) calling it the best sports movie of the decade.

Sports Illustrated called The Fighter the sports movie of the decade in its December 20 issue.

I don't consider myself a huge boxing fan, and I haven't watched a live fight in a few years (the last one I can remember making a point to see was De La Hoya versus Mayweather in 2007).  That being said, I found The Figher to be one of the best sports movies I can remember seeing.  The characters are so believable (they are based on real people, after all), and the story is so complex and improbable, that it's hard not to take something significant away from this movie.  For me, it highlighted the difficulties of living up to expectations - your family's, you town's, and your own - and focusing on your craft when everything else is crumbling around you.  I would highly recommend seeing The Fighter prior to the Academy Awards, as I won't be shocked if Micky Ward adds another trophy or two to his case.

Discover (the) Orange Bowl at 35,000 Feet

On Monday night, my Stanford Cardinal defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies 40-12 to win the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.  Some of my classmates took their talents to South Beach to attend the game in person, while others were already back on campus watching in downtown Palo Alto's sports bars.  I, unfortunately, had booked a flight from New York to San Jose weeks before I knew that Stanford would be in the Orange Bowl on January 3 (at that time, it seemed like it was New Years Day's Rose Bowl or bust for the Cardinal).  Luckily, though, I was scheduled to fly JetBlue, and if all went according to plan I'd be spending the last three hours of the six hour flight watching Stanford dismantle the ACC champions via the airline's DirecTV feed.

After an utterly inexcusable and completely unexplained three hour delay, I boarded my flight just after the opening kickoff.  Much like the game itself, my in-flight viewing experience was a tale of two halves.  Similar to Stanford's first half performance, JetBlue's DirecTV was extremely inconsistent during the Orange Bowl's first two quarters.  Each time the audio cut out, a Stanford lineman would miss a crucial block.  Every time the video feed dropped while searching for a satellite signal, the Cardinal would have a defensive meltdown.  When the obnoxious European woman sitting next to me decided she needed to get up to use the bathroom ten minutes after takeoff (climbing over me and my aisle seat in the process), Andrew Luck threw an uncharacteristic interception.  I watched the first half in a frustrated and uncomfortable trance, knowing that Stanford, and the JetBlue DirecTV broadcast, was severely underperforming.

The second half was an entirely different story for both DirecTV and for the Cardinal.  With the plane at cruising altitude, the video and audio feeds went undisturbed from halftime on, and my European neighbor slept quietly throughout the remainer of the flight (perhaps she went to the bathroom to pop an ambien or something, because she was out cold for five consecutive hours folllowing her walk).  As the viewing experience settled into a rhythm, so did Stanford.  Suddenly, Luck was unstoppable, the defense was impenetrable, and the team cruised to its first BCS bowl victory and an almost-guaranteed Top 5 finish.  In the end, the in-flight viewing experience and the on-field performance matched each other quite nicely and, if nothing else, provided me with an interesting response to the "Where were you when Stanford won the Orange Bowl in 2011?" question, in case someone ever asks me.

While watching your team play in a BCS bowl game during a cross-country flight is far from ideal, at least I got to see (most of) the game live.  I always try and fly JetBlue because of its superior in-flight entertainment options, and I recently learned that the airline now has NFL Sunday Ticket as well.  I'd rather not have to watch a big game that I care about on a flight again any time soon, but I wouldn't mind watching the Broncos battle the Jaguars to pass a few spare travel hours.  Thanks, JetBlue, for letting me enjoy Stanford's Orange Bowl victory and for getting me back to campus safe, sound, and three hours late.

BONUS: Once back on campus, I went to Maples Pavilion (Stanford's basketball stadium) to welcome the football team back to campus on Tuesday afternoon.  I had seen this on TV dozens of times before - coach buses pulling up to campus in front of thousands of cheering fans - and was excited to finally experience it in person.  Not at all surprisingly, though, the Stanford "fans" disappointed; the crowd was extremely sparse and the "press conference" was short and unemotional.  I've said it before and I unfortunately think I'll say it again, but Stanford sports fan are shockingly weak.  It makes Andrew Luck's decision to return to school for his red-shirt Junior season all the more surprising.

New Year at the New Meadowlands

While Sunday was a rough day for my Giants, who were bounced from the playoffs by Green Bay's victory over Chicago despite winning at Washington and finishing the season at a respectible 10-6, the "other" New York football team had a big day at home and I was there to witness it in person.  Heading to the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the New York Jets dismantled the Buffalo Bills at New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday, and thanks to a Stanford connection I scored two free tickets to the game, a club parking pass, plus access to the Jets' exclusive Tiffany's Green Room.

Before the game, I wasn't super-excited about driving all the way to New Jersey for an essentially-meaningless Jets-Bills game (the J-E-T-S had clinched a playoff spot the week before and were sure to rest the majority of their offensive starters, including QB Mark Sanchez and RB Ladanian Tomlinson).  It was the day after New Years and I figured I'd be more comfortable and just as happy watching the game from the comfort of my parents' living room on Long Island.  Little did I know that watching a football game from the Tiffany's Green Room on a 50-degree day in January could combine the excitement of live NFL football with the ammenities of one's own home.

At first blush, a Jets game at the New Meadowlands was 10% football game, 90% carnival.  I'm not sure if all Jets games are like this (or just inconsequential Week 17 games versus a Buffalo team starting Brian Brohm at quarterback), but the amount of pregame activity going on outside the stadium was staggering.  There was a dixieland band, jugglers, football-themed carnival-style games (throwing a football through a cardboard player cutout with a hole in it, for example) and a host of free giveaways ("Sign your life away to Verizon and get a free hand towel!").  I was already experiencing sensory-overload when I got off the elevator at the Tiffany's Green Room, where the ambiance couldn't have been more different from the zoo surrounding the stadium.

The Green Room is part bar / lounge, part living room, and part restaurant.  The area was filled with free food - good stuff, too, not your typical stadium fare - and the open bar was completely free as well.  The walls were lined with couches and booths from which you could eat, drink, relax and watch the game from dozens of different HD screens.  Other people were saddled up to the bar, talking football (or perhaps stocks?) and drinking cocktails.  While I'm normally a "man of the people" when it comes to professional sporting events - I like to sit in the real seats with the real fans - this was the perfect place to be for this particular sleepy Jets contest.  It was great - when you wanted to be at a live NFL game you walked a few feet outside to your seats for an awesome, up-close view, and when you wanted the comforts of home you came back inside to the Green Room and grabbed a drink and a seat.  I wish I took some pictures inside the club area, but I was an invited guest of a Jets employee and didn't want to make an abnormally-large ass of myself.

View from our seats just outside the Tiffany's Green Room.

We did venture outside of the comfy confines of the Green Room to check out the rest of the place, of course, and overall I was impressed.  While the stadium is fairly utilitarian and doesn't have a ton of character, there's a reason for that; the builders did a great job of constructing a stadium that can be completely Jets one afternoon, and completely Giants the next.  Every sign can be flipped from green to blue automatically, so every player poster and team flag is rotated before each weekend, depending on whether the Jets or Giants are home.  Even the permanent signage (denoting section numbers and the like) are surrounded by soft lighting than can be flipped from green to blue, a nice touch.

As you might remember from my recap of opening day at Citi Field in April, I don't like when stadiums (especially new ones) clutter themselves with a million visual advertisements.  In this regard, New Meadowlands Stadium is awesome. There are basically only four large permanent ads visible from the inside, one above each of the giant video boards in the corners of the stadium.  Not only are these ads relatively classy and extremely unintrusive, they're helpful to fans; each corner of the stadium, inside and out, is completely branded by those four sponsors.  So, fans looking to meet up at the game can tell each ther that they're "right outside the Bud Light gate" or "sitting under the MetLife video board," which is helpful in an 80,000+ person stadium.  The concourses in the corners behind the video boards are branded, too, and are complete with interactive displays that are part-advertisement, part-entertainment.  I took a picture of the Verizon concourse (my favorite), which featured a series of TVs showing live NFL and other sports action, as well as a scrolling ticker with scores and news from around the sports world.

MetLife, Verizon, Pepsi and Bud Light (shown here) are the four big New Meadowlands sponsors.

The Verizon Studio can be found in the concourse between the Verizon entry gate and video board.

I can't wait to get back to the New Meadowlands for a Giants game next season and experience the place like a "true" football fan.  For this particular post-New Years afternoon, however, hanging out in the Green Room was the perfect way to watch "Brohm!  Brunell! It's the Bills and the Jets at the New Meadowlands Stadium!"  

Blogging Resolutions

After an almost-four week hiatus covering a twelve-day trip to Cambodia, Thailand and Hong Kong, a post-Christmas blizzard and New Years Eve, I'm back for the 2011 edition of Caught Looking.  While I've never been one to make concrete New Years Resolutions for myself, I'm hoping to make this blog's second calendar year even stronger than the first.  Here are my New Years Blogging Resolutions for 2011; hopefully you'll all push me to make sure I stick to the plan, and continue reading throughout the year.

• In 2010, I posted 83 times, propped up by a number of posts I made from the World Cup in South Africa in June.  As a realistic goal given my other obligations to school, family and friends, I'm shooting for 100+ posts in 2011.  That's an average of 8.3 per month, or one every 3-4 days.  Hopefully I can blow through the century mark, though.
• Since moving back to California in September, I've hit up games at Oracle Arena and the HP Pavilion.  In 2011, I want to visit the remaining Bay Area sports teams.  Left on my list: the Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and San Jose Earthquakes.  I plan to get to the two baseball stadiums this spring after the season starts in April, make it to the football games after the summer when I return to school, and check out the MLS at some point in between.  While easier to achieve, I'm also committed to numerous Stanford basketball games this winter, and at least one Stanford baseball game this spring.
• In honor of Caught Looking's one-year anniversary this April, I'm planning a site redesign complete with new content, a new look-and-feel and, most significantly, a new custom-designed logo.  I'm currently soliciting ideas / proposals, so let me know if you want to "apply" to be the unofficial blog architect come this spring.

Here's wishing you all a fantastic start to 2011.  As for me, I'm (finally) heading to the New Meadowlands Stadium to watch the Jets play the Bills this afternoon (post to come, of course), before heading back to San Jose tomorrow night.  Happy New Year!